Sweet firm is advised after boy’s lolly death

A coroner has urged a sweet manufacturer to change its labelling after a toddler choked to death on a lollipop. The parents of two-year-old Francis Dean also called for action after an emotional inquest.

ACCIDENTAL DEATH: Francis Dean, who died when a lolly lodged in his throat. Pictured right is the current warning on a packet that contained the sweets

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A coroner has urged a sweet manufacturer to change its labelling after a toddler choked to death on a lollipop.

The parents of two-year-old Francis Dean also called for action after an emotional inquest.

Francis died despite frantic attempts to save him when the lolly became lodged in his throat.

Dad David Dean was on the balcony of his Beswick apartment with a friend when disaster struck last November.

Fighting back tears, he told the hearing: "Michael (Francis’s 13-year-old brother) was banging on the patio door. I looked inside and could see there was a massive problem. He had got the stick out but not the lolly. I put Francis on his back and tried to get the lolly out with my finger. I could feel it. But there wasn’t enough room. I could feel it and I have to live with that. What we did was not enough."

Francis was put in a blanket and taken downstairs. But paramedics and doctors could not revive him.

The lolly had no warning on its cellophane wrapper. It came from an assortment bag which carried a warning on its reverse. It read: "Lollipops are a potential choking hazard. Not suitable for children under 36 months."

Mr Dean, an NHS gym instructor, said the warning should be more prominent.

He said: "They told me they sell 40 million of those lollies. Even if this is a one-in-a-million thing that’s 40 kids. The warning needs to be made bigger and it needs to be put on the front. It might have saved Francis, it might not have done, but something needs to be done."

After recording a verdict of accidental death, deputy coroner Jean Harkin said she would write to Swizzels Matlow, based in New Mills, to ask them to increase the size of the warning.

She also said she would urge them to look at the way the ‘Double’ lollies are made after family friend Lee Richardson told the hearing he had bought a packet the day after the tragedy and found the lolly ‘just came off the stick with no pressure’.

Mum Dawn Bennison, a manager for First Choice holidays, said: "I’ve also given a letter for the coroner to send to the company. I just hope they do something."

Andrew Matlow, from Swizzels Matlow, said: "We await the letter from the coroner’s court and will take any instruction into serious consideration."